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Chapter Nineteen
Grandma Jo
Ethel's headache was getting her down, she hated being sick and wondered what had possessed her to to purposely make herself sick. Esmerelda and Sybil fussed over her, to make sure she is comfortable.
"I am fine" Ethel told them, appreciating them caring but just wanting peace and quiet. Sybil sighed, wishing they had thought of another plan that didn't involve one of her sisters sick in bed.
"How long do you think it will be until grandma Jo is here?" Sybil asked, knowing it would take a least a day on the flight, so if she was already on the plane it should be early morning.
"Probably early, Ethie how long did it say the effects of the potion last?" Esmerelda asked her, having not looked it up in a while.
"About a day" Ethel said, knowing they would have to figure out something for the few hours that it would take for Jo to get here, but right now the plan was working just fine.
"We will think of something" Sybil said, knowing her and her sisters will figure it out.
"I wonder if everyone is talking about the performance" Ethel wondered aloud, trying to change the subject and forget she was not feeling good.
"Right now that is the last thing on my mind" Esmerelda replied with a worry. She wondered what Josephine was actually going to do once she was here, yes she could shout at the teachers and their parents but that is not going to help Esmie be able to have magic again.
"Don't worry Esmerelda, if anyone can sort this it is Nan" Sybil told her, sensing what she was thinking.
It was a hard act to put up with. Ethel felt sick which made her much more stroppy than normal (if that was possible) and then the two younger girls had to fight the teachers and the nurse in order to be allowed to stay in the spare beds in the sick bay, not wanting to leave Ethel alone. In the end, it was decided for one night they could, it was getting late and all everyone wanted was to get to sleep and not argue. The three girls lay in their beds awake, unable to sleep from nerves about their grandmother coming to visit, when all of a sudden there was a sound of crying from Ethel's direction.
"Ethel? Are you alright?" Sybil asked quietly, knowing they couldn't be too loud ot they might get sent out of the sick bay.
"You aren't in pain are you?" Esmerelda asked her sister concerned and willing to go and wake the nurse to get her sister pain relief if she had too.
"No….I am just such an idiot" Ethel said as she cried more.
Sybil was confused by this. Yes Ethel's behaviour and actions could sometimes be described as idiotic, but right now she hadn't done anything, apart from make herself sick.
"It's alright Ethie, using the potion worked in the end, it bided us time" Esmerelda replied, also thinking Ethel was upset about taking the potion.
"No it isn't that" Ethel replied as she cried, not knowing how to put into words what she wanted to say.
"Then what is up?" Sybil asked, confused just like Esmerelda was.
Ethel hated the fact she was so bad at expressing herself, but she was upset and she knew her sisters would not stop nagging until she explained herself.
"I...it is just...all...these years I have thought, in the back of my mind, you two don't really love me, it is more that you feel pity for me, or that you felt like you had to love me because we are family, I pushed you away, doing everything I could to pretend I didn't care, but you two staying here with me when all I have is a silly cold has just made it hit me you do" Ethel said, the fact hitting her hard and wondering why she had being so blind to it before. Esmerelda and Sybil were probably the only two people, apart from Jo, who loved her always, even though they knew she had flaws and could be a bad person, it was obvious to anyone with eyes, anyone except Ethel that is.
"Oh Ethel? How could you not realise that?" Sybil asked shaking her head as she stood up feeling around in the dark so she could walk to Ethel. Ethel cried more, wondering why she was such an idiot sometimes.
"I don't know, I am sorry for always being so mean to you both, I just didn't realise how you felt" Ethel replied. Sybil found her way to Ethel and hugged her before she felt another pair of arms around them and realised Esmerelda was hugging them too.
"You silly goose" Esmerelda told Ethel, feeling bad Ethel had not realised, but she knew it wasn't her fault, Ethel had to of seen it herself, if they had stood with a sign in front of her saying it she wouldn't of got it in her brain, they had shown it as much as they could, Ethel was just blind to it.
"Thank you...and I am sorry" Ethel said still upsetting about her stupidity and hugging her sisters.
None of the girls got much sleep and when they saw light coming through the window they were up. Ethel's sickness had more or less gone. She wasn't coughing or sneezing, her headache was gone and it was clear she was over her imaginary illness. Esmerelda looked at her watch and saw it was still fairly early, but they had a few more hours until Jo would be here.
"Now what do we do?" Sybil asked looking at her sister who wasn't sick. Ethel bit her lip worried.
"Maybe I should take some more of the potion?" Ethel suggested but Esmerelda shook her head.
"Nan won't want to come here to you sick, I do have one idea but it is crazy" Esmerelda said looking at her sisters.
"What is it Esmie?" the girls asked curiously.
The three girls left the castle and walked to the broomstick shed, they were going to go straight to the airport that Jo was arriving at, they knew when it was discovered they had left they would be in trouble, but by then they will be returning.
"Esmie you go with Ethel, she is a better flier" Sybil told her, knowing she had improved so much, but she had only just gotten good at flying and Esmie being there would make it an extra weight, Ethel was better at control, and Esmerelda didn't argue, she just wished she could fly by herself again.
"Come on, if we go now we might get there just as the plane lands" Ethel told her sisters as Esmerelda sat on the broomstick behind Ethel and Sybil got on hers and they took off, towards the airport.
It took a while, because the girls were not entirely sure of the way, and Ethel and Sybil ended up arguing when they took a wrong turn, but soon they were landing outside a hustling and bustling airport. Ethel and Sybil took their ties off as well as their coloured pin badges, that way they looked less like a witches uniform. They hid their broomsticks in a bush and then rushed into the airport.
"Australia…..there" Esmerelda said pointing to the board of arrivals it said 'Sydney Australia -landed" the girls moved so they were by the gate where their gran would arrive.
"It might not even be that plane, she could of missed that one and got another" Ethel said wishing they had a way to contact her to find out. The girls were just wondering if they should wait when they heard their names.
"Esmerelda, Ethel, Sybil" someone said. All there girls turned, shaking a little, worried it was HB who had followed them.
However an older woman was stood there, blonde like the young girls but with more greying hair, and dressed in what was supposed to be casual clothes to hide the fact she was a witch, she was holding a large suitcase and looking tired but furious but excited to see her granddaughters all at the same time. The girls ran to her and wrapped their arms around her shouting nan.
"Oh I missed you all so much" she said cuddling her granddaughters tightly but she knew she had time to spend with them later, right now she had this mess to sort out.
"Come on you three, we can catch up later, right now I have to have a word with them adults in your care" she told them. Everyone went back outside, grabbed their broomsticks and then Jo led them into the toilets, made sure it was empty and transferred, going back to Cackles to find out what on earth was doing on and why Esmerelda had being left for nearly a year without magic.